It’s time to trade in cries of “six seasons and a movie” for “wombo combo” because Dan Harmon is going to be producing a sitcom set in the wild world of esports. The untitled series will follow “a newly formed team of eSports players trying to make it to the top in the cutthroat world of competitive gaming,” according to Variety. YouTube announced that Starburns Industries would be producing the video game comedy on Monday as part of a press release (via Variety) announcing a number of new series, including a time travel thriller from The Rock and a Jumper sequel from Doug Liman.
The six-episode series was created by some of Nerdist’s favorite people in gaming, Michele Morrow and Jesse Cox, who will serve as both executive producers and will act in the series too. The show also has a powerhouse pair of writers and showrunners in Rick and Morty‘s Sarah Carbiener and Erica Rosbe.  The half-hour scripted comedy will star Arin Hanson and Dan Avidan of Game Grumps, which makes sense given that the untitled series will debut on the Game Grumps channel in 2017 on YouTube Red.
For those of you who don’t know, YouTube Red is YouTube’s premium subscription service that removes ads, offers offline viewing, grants unlimited access to Google Play Music, and has exclusive content for a fee of $9.99 per month. Considering how annoying some of those Tai Lopez “Here in my garage” pre-roll ads were, it sounds like a small price to pay. “We’re excited to be the ones finally bringing video game content to YouTube,†said Harmon in a press release.
With esports–or competitive gaming for the uninitiated–gaining in popularity among cord-cutting viewers who watch via livestreaming services like Twitch, now seems like the perfect time to explore the inner workings and inherent silliness of the newest billion dollar industry. In fact, a new survey suggests that the rise of esports could be contributing to declining NFL ratings, which is no small accomplishment.
While I’m sure that pre-production is already well underway, I would ask that they find a way to include the world’s greatest handshake, which took place between former Nerdist gaming editor Malik Forté and pro Overwatch player Brandon Larned (a.k.a. Seagull):
NA handshake? @Malik4Play @A_Seagull pic.twitter.com/JRIHXS8yLI
— ELEAGUE (@ELEAGUETV) September 25, 2016
What do you think of this news? What would you like to see from an esports comedy? Do you use YouTube Red? Let us know in the comments below!
Image: Flickr/Bago Games
Dan Casey is the senior editor of Nerdist and the author of books about Star Wars and the Avengers. Follow him on Twitter (@Osteoferocious).
